1. _
On the morning of Friday, March 19th, 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, already the bestselling author of one book and long overdue on his contract for another, accepted what appeared to be a fairly innocuous journalistic assignment: write five hundred words of copy for Sports Illustrated to go along with a photo essay on the Mint 400 motorcycle race, which was scheduled to take place that coming weekend in Las Vegas 1.
It was a cushy offer, to say the least: Thompson would get paid three … [Read more...] about Hunter S. Thompson & Oscar Acosta in the Desert:
A 45-Year Retrospective
Things American
Hunter S. Thompson & Oscar Acosta in the Desert:
Things American: Control Magic
“The mind: a great weapon and an even greater weakness.” – Jace Beleren I. “Illusions of Grandeur” It’s 7 A.M. on a Saturday in October 2012. I'm twenty-eight-years-old and yelling “Idiot,” “Fucking terrible,” and “What were you thinking?” into my steering wheel. I’m driving home from Time Warp Comics, where I’ve just lost a Magic tournament. And not just lost, but lost lost: eighteenth out of twenty-five at the midnight release for the newest set, Return to Ravnica. My opponents? Mostly … [Read more...] about Things American: Control Magic
Things Buffalo: My New Skin
Driving along the Outer Harbor, I watch for signs that direct me to the beach, watching for parked vehicles with bike racks, stickers on bumpers that might say 13.1, 26.2, 70.3, 140.6. My Toyota has a 26.2, though I haven’t done a tri yet, an ironman or a half. I see boats docked along the harbor, a place called Dug’s Dive, which I hear serves strong drinks, thick and tasty ice cream. Lake Erie, to my right, helps me find direction, knowing on the map it’s west of the city. I’m not so good … [Read more...] about Things Buffalo: My New Skin
Things American: The Buffalo Sentence (Federman, Coetzee, Creeley).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. This is actually a grammatical sentence, featuring Buffalo the city, the animal the buffalo, and an obscure verb, to buffalo, meaning to intimidate or bully. Substituting different words for each of these parts we can hear the structure of the sentence better, as in, “Cincinnati bison Cincinnati bison intimidate intimidate Cincinnati bison.” It is perhaps coincidental, but as a student, fiction writer, and professor … [Read more...] about Things American: The Buffalo Sentence (Federman, Coetzee, Creeley).
Things American: An Introduction to Buffalo
This week for Things American, we're excited to share the work of Kim Chinquee, Brian Mihok, and Ted Pelton, who are writers and/or artists and/or publishers based in Buffalo, New York. I asked them to contribute and share their experience of the city because it has been on my mind lately, what with the bankruptcy of Detroit; and because I'm from Western New York, although I haven't been to Buffalo since the &Now conference in 2009; and because it's hot every day here in Austin, and I've … [Read more...] about Things American: An Introduction to Buffalo
Things American: Yeah Science Breaking Bad!
Like many, many others, we dived into the k-hole that is breaking down Breaking Bad. What follows is a series of gchat conversations between Jess Stoner and Carmiel Banasky about the show, its fiction connections, and our obsession.
[We start from the very first scene of "Blood Money"]
CB: I love this intro (I'm rewatching as we chat). It keeps with the pool motif. The pool has become a way to track the passage of time in the series.
JS: I know! It brings you right back to the first … [Read more...] about Things American: Yeah Science Breaking Bad!